It was International Women’s Day last week (holla at my ladies!) and it made me think about a few things. The first is how irritating I find female homophobes. Before you get on a high horse about me targeting women etc etc etc, hear me out. First and foremost I would like to point out that I am a strident feminist; despite not loving them in the biblical sense (pretty perverted stuff if you ask me and/or actually read the old testament) I could not be a stronger supporter of gender equality.

The problem I have with lady homophobes is that in my view homophobia is intrinsically tied to misogyny. To my way of thinking people are uncomfortable with any change in the gender norms but particularly with the feminization of men. As Madonna (apologies) put it in one of her perhaps slightly less memorable hits:

Girls can wear jeans
And cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots
‘Cause it’s OK to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
‘Cause you think that being a girl is degrading

Perhaps people don’t out and out think that being a girl is degrading, but somewhere ingrained in people is this idea that being a woman is intrinsically less than being a man.

Lady homophobes then cannot be real feminists because if they truly believed in gender equality the queers of the world – who mess with gender norms in ways that people with strict boundaries around them are not wont to handle – wouldn’t bother them in the slightest.

If you’ve known me long enough then you probably see where this post is swiftly heading and that’s that these women don’t really LOVE THEMSELVES. And that’s sad. Women who say they aren’t feminists are, frankly, the worst. I hope this doesn’t feel like I’m blaming the victim but women need to stand up and realize that feminism is not over. Things might be better but there’s still a fight out there. I stand with my ladies every day, but particularly for International Women’s Day.